Abstract:
HIV/AIDS is devastating and fatal to working adults in the prime of their lives, thus
leaving the responsibility of caring for the orphans to their grandparents. This study
explored the experiences of grandparents assuming the role of parenting their AIDSorphaned
grandchildren in Lephalale, South Africa. Phenomenological face-face
interviews were conducted with ten elderly, black African grandmothers between the
ages of 55 and 71. The participating women were self-identified as carers for their
AIDS-orphaned grandchildren. The challenges the participant grandmothers faced in
caring for their grandchildren were identified as the following: recurrent experiences of
loss and grief, lack of social support, fear of stigmatization, financial constraints, mental
health and physical strain, difficulty in acquiring state social grants, emotional distress,
the caring role being divinely ordained and the rejection of orphans by their biological
fathers. Recommendations are advanced on the basis of the findings.
